States Arts Leaders Meet to Discuss ‘Challenge for ‘90s’

What are the best strategies for persuading governor-elect Pete Wilson to take action on arts issues? What are the best ways to link the arts and the global economy at local, state and national levels? How can the arts in California draw more attention from foreign visitors?

The California Confederation of the Arts is attempting to answer those and other questions this week during its annual meeting of more than 300 top members of the state’s arts community.

Subtitled “California Arts/Global Cultures: A Challenge for the 1990s,” the 1990 Congress of the Arts, which officially opened on Wednesday, features a number of panels, workshops, policy-making caucus meetings and mini-conferences through Saturday at downtown Los Angeles’ Biltmore Hotel.

“We’re dealing with the problem of trying to achieve cultural equity in a time of declining (government) revenues; trying to balance all the cultural needs of California in a time of recession,” said Ken Larsen, associate director of the statewide confederation and a key planner of the 1990 congress.

Workshop and panel topics to be covered range from “Arts and International Tourism” to “International and Multicultural Festivals: What Works and What Doesn’t?” to “Maximizing Results From Your Contacts With the Public.”

Perhaps the main events of the Congress will be three key “general sessions” planned for Friday and Saturday. The topics are “Working for Cultural Equity: What’s Next?” “The Fight for Freedom of Expression: What’s Next?” and “The New Governor and the Arts.”

“It’s very likely that with the new governor there’s going to be a new plan of action,” said Susan Hoffman, executive director of the confederation. “Although (Gov. George) Deukmejian and Wilson are in the same party, they have different agendas on different issues. There will be a new sense, a new direction, and how the state will grapple with the economy will be an important question. We have to seize the opportunity (to decide) how we’re going to deal with these things.”

One of the changes expected with the gubernatorial switch is a new director for the powerful California Arts Council, the agency responsible for allocating the state’s arts budget, which has reached nearly $17 million.

Although Wilson’s wife, Gail, will speak at a Friday luncheon honoring arts patrons Caroline Ahmanson and AT&T;, the governor-elect will not have a representative at the “New Governor and the Arts” session. However, CAC chairwoman Joanne C. Kozberg, who served four years as senior policy consultant for Sen. Wilson through 1988, will address his plans, Hoffman said.